blazingbob

Niever

Learn how to grade strictly and maybe then you can go down this path.

Hindsight makes you a genius

Paying for fast tracks honestly gives the grading company NO incentive to improve turn around times. Why improve turnaround times when if you are purposely slow impatient customers will pay fast track fees for basically the same amount of grading time.

Books I submitted at the show just posted today, so no.

San Diego as well as most other conventions require a Temporaray sellers permit. I setup in the state, do a show, collect and file sales tax. Without the permit you are unable to register badges etc. The rest of the year CA customers are not charged sales tax. Going forward I'm assuming that they would which means that each state will probably require a online business to have a sale tax number. X number of states multipled by up to 4 quarterly filings and you have the potential for small business to have to file 200 sales tax returns a year. I'm sure business accountants are smiling.

I guess my parents raised me right. When you were warned not to do something because there are rules I generally followed them. Seems others in order to save a few bucks feel it is ok to send a comic book which is not media mail. If they get caught they feign ignorance and pay but continue to do it anyway.

Must be nice to be 3-4 days behind in the news as discussion has been going on for days in another thread. Beach blindness?

Torpedo comics gave up their tables so that dealers could setup at the show.

Since I do not have a physical location in 50 states and only collect sales tax in NY you now have to multiply by 50 and to know 50 different states rules on when to collect or not collect sales tax. I do collect sales tax at the conventions. Dumping this onto the states is not a good thing. If the Supreme Court overruled this it should have one rule for the entire country as far as when to collect online sales tax or not.

So you are offering to come help us set up? I'm sure John would love volunteers Thank you.

Lets see, 3 6 ft tables $375, 20X20 booth $4000+

How about it is the first show and see how it goes.

How can we improve our show experience for you, Oh wait, nevermind LOL

I thought it was corn dogs and root beer? Oh wait if they are from California it would be fish taco's and flavored water.

Appreciate the opinions since I wasn't exactly sure how I felt about the responses I was hearing at the show. Needed to hear both sides of this one.

Hmmm, I didn't think an item in a shopping cart was still available to other "shoppers" while it was in yours. I agree a time limit should be posted Bob

Was listening to two major dealers discussing how long to allow a customer to keep a book in a shopping cart before checking out. One dealer stated that he sold a book that was in the cart because it had been in there a few days. The other stated that the shopping cart isn't a "sale" until the books are paid for. I don't have a shopping cart checkout yet but when a customer orders a book it is no longer for sale, it could have been sold at a show but I generally don't have a specific time frame. If I am at show it could be days before I finalize invoices. Since I know many of the forum guys are online shoppers what are your feelings about this? Is there a certain amount of time you feel you are entitled to before checking out? I am planning on putting in checkout functionality so I am curious about this. Thank you

Unexpected expenses are used more to cancel previously agreed upon deals then selling. Just had a 5 digit multi book purchase cancelled for unexpected expense.

I am not sure this is a general reflection of all. If I were a $1 book seller is there a lack of material? How about if I were a low grade seller, do you think that they have a problem acquiring inventory? Is there a lack of quality golden age collections? Yes, they are tougher to find and if they are any good the seller is going to canvas the auction houses first which if you are a dealer have to say are very aggressive competitors. Ask yourself as a dealer why would the owner of a good golden age collection sell you the books? Your charming personality? Silver age collections - Are there fewer of these coming to the market? Yes, again there are more options to sell the books. Bronze Age collections - This seller is around my age, 57- 60 and approaching retirement. I think there will be more not less bronze age collections coming to the market in the next few years. The new Richism - RID. Retirement, Illness, Death. More collections will be coming due to these three things. I am buying a Death collection. Owner passed away.

First off let me state that I am not picking on anyone I am llsting below, just making a point I am generally surprised at the lack of "business model" knowledge by buyers and sellers. As a seller who is your "market". As a buyer who are your "sellers". For example, Upgraders or guys who buy to press and upgrade are generally looking for keys or high grade books already graded that if pressed will make them money. They are normally looking for guys who don't press or have lots of CGC books because there is less risk in graded books then raw. Every seller misses something, just gets something in or possibly doesn't know what defects can come out. You can always tell these buyers since they are lighting up the book, spin it like a pizza and if they could set up a microscope they would. As a seller this buyer basically represents a person you are handing money to if they upgrade it. If this type of buyer wonders why there is less and less material in the room I would ask them how many times do you think sellers want to hand you money? This type of buyer is heavily dependent on getting first shot. If you want to be this type of buyer and want first shot bring lots of money and be prepared to not get big discounts. Remember, I am not in business to make YOU money. The weekend warrior dealer. I am not exactly sure why this type of buyer doesn't see my side of the story when they are running around a show before it opens buying books for resale that I would. I paid for a table, you did not. When you are running around the show buying books for resale you are looking for sellers that have a lower cost of doing business, may not know all the hot books or simply don't know how to price. While in certain parts of the country the cost of living may be cheaper but if the material is not there they sometimes price material very aggressively just because they never get it. Some dealers feel that the collection they just bought might be their one home run to capitalize financially on. The other thing I see is the "home run" mentality. Books aren't bought if it can't be flipped right away. Either this shows you are under capitalized or you don't have the ability to sell books. From certain dealers I'm pretty sure if I didn't have the inventory already I could have bought a few booths of really solid make money over the long term inventory. If you CAN'T see the profit when looking at books you haven't learned your trade yet. Dealer to Dealer sales. As in any business relationships are very important. If you can't see the business benefit of selling to other dealers I'd question if you can see the Big picture. Successful dealers do NOT get successful on their own. If you are fair with others they are FAIR with you. It is a two way relationship. They may have something you need for customers. The most successful relationships are ones that benefit each other. The other thing to realize is that there are dealers whose business models is to sell to other dealers. Why deal with drips and drabs when you can sell large chunks of a collection? If they are successful at finding the books which is the hardest part they leave a small portion of the profit to the retail seller. Cash flow, cash flow, cash flow. You have it, you get to buy books, if you don't you get to look at them on the wall waiting for that one guy to buy a book. Assuming Heroes is a snapshot of the Comic hobby. First off let me state that the mindset of a lot of Heroes Dealers is cash. Nowhere else in the country or internationally have I experienced this. I have seen large transactions turned down because the dealer did not have cash. Turned down. And you wonder why you are a small dealer? I also agree with Brian, I have bought a few collections this year. Just bought a very nice high grade collection that isn't up on the website yet. Won't be unveiled at a convention because frankly when I unveiled a collection at C2E2 it didn't do what I expected. I don't get dealer frenzy buying. I don't get people fighting over the books. And why is that? Because they assume I picked all the good stuff to get graded, I am not perceived to have a dealer to dealer business model or that I priced it where they can't make money.

-1000. What? Why do I need to put a pre-hero in a slab in 7.0 or better and sell it on comiclink?

Since I don't buy from them it doesn't impact me much. However since I am a consignment site I hope they raise it to 25%. More books will be consigned with me.

I was able to run cards at the show.

? There are shows where you cannot setup without a valid sales tax number. And if there is one agency you don't want after you right after the IRS it is the State Sales tax agency. New Orleans collects right at the show.